The official debate: Should Contador have waited for Schleck?

[luckyboy]

Contador won the race today. If that suits you, congratulations.

He would've won it in four days time even if this didn't happen.

 

[jeffballinger]

Bet you never saw pharmboy shooting up with dope either, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Using that logic, just about everything is debatable.

 

[42coppi]

sanchez and menchov were pulling on the front too,its not like contador is alone in it

It will only become clear in the next few stages - especially the final time trial - but then will it be the MJ ( Magic Jersey ) that imbues whoever with the extra speed or just being the better time trialist on the day ?

 

[scribe]

He would've won it in four days time even if this didn't happen.

Saves a bit of suspense then.

 

[Steel4Ever]

I hope the next time Contador has to stop to pee, Saxo Bank bring spartacus to the front and put the frickin hammer down on the peloton.

Ditto when wee little schlecky has to go wee wee and the VINO! express leaves him flopping in the wind.

 

[Cuban_Lance]

Hipocrisy

The Festina affair was in 1998. 20 years before (and since) cyclists have been cheating with chemicals. Prior to that, they cheated with whatever they could get their hands on.

I'm sure it's been discussed in this thread, but the notion of any honour or respect to the Yellow Jersey is a fairy tale.

AC cannot be blamed for being a fierce competitor. The chain slippage was probably human error (God knows it's happened to me many times).

Besides, that's what you have a team for. To win the Tour, you need a teammate in your wake to control the race and fend off these incidents, and give you his bike if needed.

In my town, luck is distributed at 6:00 AM. It is not happenstance, but earned. Schleck is a wonderful young rider that is yet to exert any leadership in the peloton. If you've noticed, Contador is riding not only with his team, but the Spanish Armada (Rodriguez, Sanchez) and has reeled in the Vino wildcard.

Chains don't slip to guys like that.

 

[luckyboy]

Saves a bit of suspense then.

Haha yeah. Let's get talking about the Vuelta then

 

[Steel4Ever]

Bet you never saw pharmboy shooting up with dope either, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Using that logic, just about everything is debatable.

SOMEONE saw it take place...just wan't you or I and anyone else on this forum.

 

[El Pistolero]

Whoops.
I thought I was on a bike racing forum, not a high school class president popularity myspace page.

What jersey exactly is it they award for "Best Personality" any way?

Team Classification

 

[nicholaaaas]

Whoops.
I thought I was on a bike racing forum, not a high school class president popularity myspace page.

What jersey exactly is it they award for "Best Personality" any way?

that would be the rainbow jersey... and not the one Cadel wears... and not the former World Cup jersey either

 

[El Pistolero]

that would be the rainbow jersey... and not the one Cadel wears... and not the former World Cup jersey either

It definitely was the 2005 rainbow jersey.

 

[BYOP88]

The game cancels itself in situations like that, same on the mountain, only people who don't see and do that are cheats, morally at least.

Robbie Fowler refused a penalty, many incidences on hand of fair play, I don't cheat, never will, I have no time for those who do. Cantador is one of those, Armstrong being right about him is quite ironic, we are talking of the wearer of the yellow jersey here, nobody else. You don't attack him in circumstances where he is impaired by mechanics or crashing, all the dead herrings that have been thrown in are hilarious, but laregely irrelevant.

What you are saying about football has nothing to do with what I was saying in my example of fair, you seem to be ignoring the obvious.

It would be interesting to know how many weeks those who believe Contador was correct, have been following cycle racing.

You mean this one from 2:19 onwards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1sU12e3j5I where Fowler "missed" but Liverpool still scored from it and won 2-1 if Fowler was playing fair he would've blasted it over the goal or is there another one?

 

[sars1981]

Absolutely Contador should have attacked. That is exactly the kind of sensationalism this Tour needs to make things more exciting. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if it was Contador who kicked his chain off.

 

[Big GMaC]

Wow! Eyes such good you have, hrmmm! (not my best yoda )
You must have super slo-mo zoom corneas.

Just how much finger travel does it take to shift a SRAM lever, anyway?

Bet you never saw pharmboy shooting up with dope either, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

This much travel

 

[nicholaaaas]

It definitely was the 2005 rainbow jersey.

that would be a grasp... remember who was second?

 

[xmoonx]

it's hard for me to explain but his inner chain(??) was way too small so the chain was strung too loose so any small jam will put the chain off. I hope you understand but it was schlecks fault completely.

You continue Ad Nauseum about the chain and how arguably one of the worlds best cyclists can't or doesn't know how to shift a bicycle. I suspect however that AS is 100,000 times the rider you will ever hope to be either in your dreams or real life.

 

[Steel4Ever]

This much travel

Good answer.

 

[nicholaaaas]

Good answer.

x=5 duh

but in a more philosophical point of view... let's wait till everyone figures out an answer. and if they're wrong let's wait for them to catch up

 

[El Pistolero]

that would be a grasp... remember who was second?

Well because of him the doper Valverde wasn't able to win. All the more merit to him no?

He's one of the only guys in the current peloton that I think rides clean. Safe for the occasional cocaine shot of course, but since when does that make someone ride better. Off season ;o

 

[Galic Ho]

Wow, this is sad. I honestly thought AC had more class. He had to have known pretty quickly that Andy had a problem, yet he attacked hard through the rest of the climb. It seems very clear that he chose to capitalize on Andy's mechanical. Classless.

And yes, there's a huge difference between this situation and the stage 3 situation when AS gained a little time. Riders were falling and having mechanicals all over the place in that stage. It would be completely impractical to wait for certain opponents who got into difficulty. Plus the top riders had yet to emerge so early in the race, so how would a rider even know who he should wait for? No, the only thing that would have any chance of working would be what they did in stage 2 where the whole peloton agreed not race at the end.

This came from page two. Page two.

I need to ask how many clowns out there on the interwebs just created accounts to flame AC? Please, someone take a punt on the number.

You're a prize goose chump. The royal dumpling. "AS gained a little time." Your math sucks. He gained about 1'14" or somewhere around that on AC. Don't let me remind you how much he profited on Sanchez, Van Den Broecke and Menchov. He gained over 2 and 3 minutes. Your boy was in yellow because Saxo are hypocrits. He is reaping what he sowed, Karma, etc, etc, etc. Have your cry and give Andy a hug.

Saxo knew Franck's crash held up all but 5 racers on the cobblestones of northern France. They had the best cobbled racer setting pace, with Hushovd and Evans in tow as well. Did anyone cry then? No. Is anyone crying now? Yes, a baby, a baby Schleck. I'd use Schlecklett but calling him a baby and a sook is necessary. Nobody waited for all the Maglia Rosa wearers who crashed in the Giro. They all rode on...those were accidents. This was the riders own fault...he dropped his chain and nobody can prove otherwise. That rarely ever happens uphill, let alone on a GC candidate. Odds are he stuffed up. If he had a flat there is a point to be made that one should stop, but even that doesn't happen. Ask Evans.

Everyone arguing Schleck has been hard done by needs some perspective. Eat some cement and harden the F#%K UP you bunch of prima donnas. Thank yourselves lucky you don't play cricket, AFL or Rugby League because us Aussies would ripe you to shreds with moaning like I expect to find over the other 120, I repeat, 120 odd pages of drivel.

 

[nicholaaaas]

Well because of him the doper Valverde wasn't able to win. All the more merit to him no?

He's one of the only guys in the current peloton that I think rides clean. Safe for the occasional cocaine shot of course, but since when does that make someone ride better. Off season ;o

so then how is the 2005 rainbow jersey tainted? what are you getting at?

 

[jaylew]

*Yawn*

Haven't read this entire thread but this whole thing is being overplayed and overblown for now. I wish they would have waited, mostly because of this stupid debate, but I really doubt it would have had an effect on the ultimate outcome.

I'll revisit this if AS drops AC on the Tourmalet, puts a minute on him and then stays within 1:30 in the TT (or a similar scenario).

 

[FanDeSoler]

Schlemp

I'll entertain the question - yes, AC should've slowed up a bit - just enough to turn on the gas & drop him like he was going to do anyway. Anyway...if this is our headline of the day, it's a sure sign of a boring Tour...that & 5 French stage wins.

 

[henryg]

Here is Riis's take:

“Sánchez and Menchov were going full gas. It won’t help to criticize. For us, it would have been better if they had waited, but we cannot expect any help in these circumstances,” Riis said. “I think Contador waited at the beginning, but it took awhile before Andy was on his bike again. How long can Contador wait? I don’t know. Of course we’d have hoped he waited more. I don’t want to create a polemic, but how many guys crashed today? Nobody helps them, nobody waited. That’s how it is.”

Bruyneel who is at this point not a great AC fan said this:

“In the heat of the race and the finale, you cannot say to Contador, ‘wait for Andy.’ Andy didn’t wait for Contador on the cobblestones, either,” said RadioShack’s Johan Bruyneel. “You can’t say to Sammy Sánchez, I’ll let you go because I’ll wait for the yellow jersey. No, there are no gifts in this race.”

These 2 have no bias in favor of Contador and have quite a bit of experience. I'd say they got it about right.

 

[bobs nob]

Uh no. This is an effort to use Armstrong to distract away from the obvious. Let's let Armstrong go. He is not really in this race anymore.

Try again. Lance's chamois sniffers are trying to look for a good reason to justify Lance's treatment of AC, and you found a piece of wood to cling to in the sh!tstorm. They (you??) haven't gotten over their Idol looking like a very little man last year. His chuckleheads are driving the 'mechanical' ergo AC is low class angle.

It wasn't a mechanical. You KNOW it wasn't a mechanical and you keep calling it a mechanical. You are propagandizing over a racing incident. A kid knows by age 12 (or whenever they get a bike with chainrings) you don't shift rings under full power. It's not a mechanical. Let that go. Work on a new angle.